What is Sugar on a Stick?

any recent notebook or computer that can run Linux, Windows or macOS, using a USB thumbdrive or stick, as a Live USB,

a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3, using a microSD card, or;

any computer as a virtual machine.

You can use Sugar on a Stick to demo Sugar almost anywhere without disturbing the contents of the computer you use, and if people like what they see, you can install Sugar on a Stick to their hard drives or other sticks from the demo stick.

Our most recent version of Sugar on a Stick was released on 14 November 2017 with Fedora 27.

Known bugs

Want to use Sugar on a Stick?

After you've tried out Sugar on a Stick, we hope you'll come back here and join our community of contributors to help us make the next release even better.

Want to contribute to Sugar on a Stick?

You're in the right place! This page is a contributors portal to the project, and contains everything you need to get started in becoming part of the Sugar on a Stick community.

New contributors start here!

Welcome! We're excited that you want to help us bring the Sugar Learning Platform to children around the world. No prior experience with computers or educational technology is required - in fact, we actively encourage a diversity of backgrounds, ages, and perspectives. See the Joining Sugar on a Stick page for instructions on how to get started.

What can you do?

There are three main ways you can contribute to the Sugar on a Stick community. We work closely with our upstreams, Sugar Labs and the Fedora Project.

Have an idea for a technical feature that isn't an Activity? Check out our feature process.

Get Sticks into Schools

Deployments all over the world need many different types of help as they work through the Sugar on a Stick deployment process - we need help building resources for all deployments to use, supporting those deployments, and helping new deployments start, as well as gathering stories and feedback from deployments so that we can make the next version of Sugar on a Stick even better.

Some things you can do to help:

"It's a wiki: Edit away!" is often said in open source communities. Almost nothing is set in stone and can't be undone. So if you've got ideas how to make instructions clearer and more accessible, just go for it!

We produce official documentation such as the Creation Kit or the Customization Guide. If you've an idea how to make them better, why don't you jump in and create a patch? Creating these nifty text files is simple - instructions live in the Documentation SOP.

Unofficial documentation for unsupported workarounds for installation and customization need to be edited, tested, and submitted for approval for official support. Check them out and leave comments and improvements; just jump in and edit the page.

Interested in starting a deployment or helping a specific one (with anything from pedagogical design to technical support to funding logistics)? Introduce yourself on the deployment lists for Sugar Labs and One Laptop Per Child and we'll get you connected with some teachers on the ground.

We're looking for some people to help us assemble tools for our support team to use. Email the Sugar on a Stick mailing list if you're interested.

Get Contributors

Contributors are the lifeblood of the Sugar on a Stick community - we work hard to bring a playful mindset of teaching, learning, and meaningful work to the children we aim to reach, and we aim to keep that mindset in our own work and community as well. Welcoming and teaching new contributors or all types, building the resources they need, and teaching them how to empower others in their turn is one of the most important things you can do; it is everyone's responsibility to help build our community, one person at a time.

Some things you can do:

Edit this page and Joining Sugar on a Stick. Is there something we could do to make the "getting started" process easier? You don't have to ask permission to edit; just do it!

Related work

While the projects listed below are not part of Sugar on a Stick, we watch them closely and try to work with them when possible (or at least we're trying to learn!)

For deployments lacking easy Internet access, one can turn a computer into a Sugar on a Stick Creation Station. The Sugar Creation Kit includes the materials you need to create Live USB sticks sticks and to install additional Activities, along with documentation and previous versions of Sugar on a Stick.

The undiscoverable is an unofficial FAQ for tips, tricks, and solutions to common problems that may otherwise be tricky to find. These are being considered for inclusion in the official SoaS documentation.

Previous versions and other subpages index

Earlier versions of Sugar on a Stick and other project pages can be reviewed at these pages: